Haiku Competition (俳句甲子園)

     Haiku is a Japanese traditional literature. It is often called the world of 17 letters. An infinite of universes can be described in only 17 letters. My hometown, Matsuyama City, has produced lots of haiku writers, like Siki Masaoka and Kyoshi Takahama. Therefore, most haiku freaks want to come to Matsuyama and Matsuyama is likened to Mecca for Muslims.
     The pictures show the high school students' haiku competition that was held on Aug. 8th. The busiest car-free mall was used as the competition site. Five representatives of each high school were at the red and white table, and announced their reviews and rebuttals about the opponents' haiku.
     The five judges decided which team had the better knowledge and skills and raised a red or white flag and the team which won more than three flags sealed the victory. The high school that was the No.1 of each pool play could go on to the tournament. I'm sorry, my alma mater couldn't get to the tournament.

(Vocabulary)
produce a lot of famous politicians 多くの有名な政治家を輩出する
haiku poet [writer]  俳人
liken somebody/something to somebody /something
(フォーマル) ＜…＞を＜…＞に例える, なぞらえる
Mecca サウジアラビア西部の都市
mecca : a place that many people want to visit for a particular reason
car-free mall 歩行者天国
pool play  予選リーグ
alma mater  母校

(KW: 正岡子規　高浜虚子　松山市　俳句　甲子園)

Comments

[KUMO]

Thank you for your comments.
I'm really happy to know you because you are the first person from Malta, where I'd like to visit at least once. Are you from Valletta? The beautiful scenery of Malta has been often introduced here in Japan. I could add one to the number of nations from where the visitors came and left me messages.
I hope that you'd write your blog and show how Malta is like. Anyway, thank you and take care!

[Tanja Cilia]

Hello... I came upon this site by accident. I love writing haiku... in fact I recently placed in a contest in a Japanese newspaper...

http://www.nichibeitimes.com/?p=4555

I sent in many, but the one they liked best was this:

Make your offerings
Inhale the scent of senko
Dance Bon Odori!

I find writing hailu helps me relax.